RALEIGH, N.C.—It was a night to remember for Villanova distance runners Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) on Thursday as they tallied the top two times in NCAA history in the 1500 meters at Paul H. Derr Track. Murphy set an NCAA record with his winning time of 3:33.02 and Langon crossed the finish line right behind him in 3:33.38 on the first night of the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State.
 
Thursday night's historic race came just 12 days after the end of the indoor NCAA Championships and featured several of the same runners who had dueled each other in the championship races of the 5000 meters and 3000 meters. Murphy and Langon outkicked Gary Martin from Virginia in a sizzling sprint down the final straightaway. The three runners were separated by less than three quarters of a second at the finish line, and all three came in under the standing NCAA season record of 3:33.74 set by Eliud Kipsang of Alabama on April 13, 2022.
 
Murphy and Langon now hold the top two times in history that have been recorded during the NCAA indoor or outdoor seasons. There have been faster times recorded by collegiate runners during the summer season and overseas. The absolute record for a collegiate runner is 3:30.20 by Mario Garcia Romo on July 19, 2022 and the Wildcats absolute school record is 3:32.30 held by Sydney Maree in Hamburg, West Germany on September 12, 1981.
 
Thursday night's new standard in the 1500 meters is the seventh school record that Murphy holds. Since the beginning of December alone he has established absolute school records in both the 3000 meters (7:35.47) and the 5000 meters (13:10.42) in addition to tonight's 1500 meter time of 3:33.02. Murphy is also the indoor school record holder in the mile (3:53.85) and has run anchor legs for the school record holder relay teams in the distance medley relay (9:20.44) and 4xMile relay (15:51.91). He ran the fastest cross country 10K in school history (28:55.7) last November in a ninth place finish at the NCAA Championships.
 
Langon is right there with Murphy in the Villanova record book, ranking second behind his teammate in the 3K (7:36.87), 5K (13:14.11) and 1500 meters (3:33.38). He is also third on the program's all-time performance list in the mile (3:54.60). The duo established their PRs and top marks in school history in the 3K, 5K and 1500 meters in the same races, beginning with the 5K at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston last December and following with the 3K records at the Eagle Elite Invitational in Boston last month.
 
There was plenty more to come for the Wildcats later on Thursday evening when the duo of redshirt freshman Bailey Habler (Sydney, Australia) and senior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) starred in the 5000 meters. Habler finished third in the fastest heat of the 5K with a time of 13:28.55, good for the sixth-fastest outdoor time in Villanova history. He instantly surged into fifth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list with his first collegiate 5K race.
 
Comber ran in the penultimate heat just moments earlier and recorded a time of 13:36.28. He lowered his lifetime PR by more than nine seconds and recorded the 11^th-fastest outdoor time in the school record book while moving up from 10^th to seventh on the individual all-time performance list.
 
Redshirt freshman CJ Sullivan (Milton, Mass.) and true freshman Charlie Moore (Brisbane, Australia) had notable 5K results as well. Sullivan lowered his PR by more than 12 seconds with a time of 13:46.04 and Moore made his collegiate debut with a PR of 13:53.17. A Spring semester arrival to Villanova and to the Wildcats roster, Moore had previously run 13:58.88 in the 5K in Australia in October 2023 when just 17 years old. He lowered that time by more than 5.5 seconds in Thursday night's race.
 
Wrapping up competition on Thursday night was redshirt freshman Nick Sullivan (Middletown, N.J.) in his first career 10000 meter race. Sullivan posted a time of 29:07.13 and moves onto the all-time Villanova performance list in the 10K in the No. 9 position.
 
Action continues at the Raleigh Relays on Friday afternoon, with the first event of the day for the Wildcats scheduled for 1:30 p.m. when the 100 meters goes off.